


Heroes & The Lost Kid

by TheSerpentGamer



Series: Non Tickle Fics [15]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Betrayal, Child Abuse, Crime Fighting, Crying, Family, Found Family, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kid Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Superheroes, Unsympathetic Deceit Sanders
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22767346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSerpentGamer/pseuds/TheSerpentGamer
Summary: Sanders Sides - Dynamic / Ships: Found FamilySummary: Superhero AU, Logan Patton and Roman are all heroes in a world where few and far between are born with abilities. Logan has dedicated his life to heroism and the study of heroes and their powers. A new villain that seems unstoppable shows up one day, the following day, Logan meets a teenager witha strange story…Long ass story I have planned, worked hard on this (yes theres defo some mha inspiration but it is NOT mha)Trigger warnings: implied abuse, betrayal, violence, unsympathetic deceit
Series: Non Tickle Fics [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1534802
Comments: 11
Kudos: 116





	1. Finding Him

Logan closed yet another journal of his findings and proudly wrote “Elemental Abilities & Their Side Effects” across the front.

“Thank you, Roman, for your participation.” Logan adjusted his glasses and stood.

“Not a problem at all, my nerdily heroic friend!” Roman replied, standing absurdly proud as if he had accomplished something by withstanding the studies.

“I’m not sure ‘nerdily’ is a word.” Logan rolled his eyes and placed the finished journal on his shelf.

Roman chuckled. “It should be! Look at you! A hero, and a massive nerd.” Roman gestured to the dozens of charts, diagrams, analyses, and documents littering his walls and desk spaces.

Though cluttered to most, Logan had a detailed system of where everything was. Hero analyses and documents in the left wing, book shelves organized by topic and name across the North wall, hypothetical ideas and theories in the right wing, diagrams and visual aids across the wall respective to their field, and published journals in the living area.

Good thing he had a duplex apartment for all his research, or he wouldn’t have any where to sleep.

“And goodness you have just about every hero’s contact and information in the metroplex!”

“State, actually.” Logan smiled with unabashed pride at his accomplishments.

Roman laughed and slapped Logan a little too hard on the back. “I wouldn’t doubt it. Now, specs-”

“My hero name is-”

“I know, Emeritus, but it doesn’t roll of the tongue, like-” Roman spun around “Prince of Storms!”

Logan rolled his eyes yet again. Hanging out with Roman too much may one day have his eyes rolling out of his head if that were scientifically possible, but he supposed that’s how it’d be with any teenager.

“As much as I enjoy your company, I have a guest lecture at the Sanders High School in an hour.”

Roman lit up. “Ohh, are they finally letting you teach everyone about superheroes? Too bad that’s not my class.”

The two walked downstairs towards the door. “I’m teaching about classification of powers, not heroes. I think it’s important everyone understand them so as not to fear the few of us who are born with strange powers.”

Roman let out a fake yawn. “Yaaaaawn, you find a way to make everything boring, even superpowers! How is that even possible?!”

Logan opened his door with a dull expression. “Good day, Roman.”

“Alright alright, see you on the streets, Specs!”

With that, Roman left and Logan shut his door and retreated to his room to prepare for his lecture.

.,..

Logan took pride in his preparations. He laid out a lovely diagram to show on the projector, classifying all known powers.

He beamed as he shone it, the perfect layout lighting up the wall.

It was a nice chart with ‘narrow’ and ‘broad’ on the side, overlapping with the ability classes on the top, how society had started to sort superpowers.

Psychic, Elemental, Physical, Manifesting, Draining, Transformation, and Movement as the list of classes, and broad and narrow as the range within each person with access to powers.

He had even put familiar hero’s names on the diagram where they fit. He, of course, was under ‘broad’ and psychic. Roman was under ‘broad’ and ‘elemental’, and his friend patton, or Animania, under ‘broad’ and ‘transformation’.

There were no largely known heroes who were under ‘narrow’, as for a hero to prosper it was best to have a larger amount of abilities from their class they could use, i.e they had a ‘broader’ pool of moves and abilities. He knew of a minor duo of heroes who had ‘narrow’ abilties. Missy and Pranks, Logan believed their hero names were, but didn’t know much else about them.

RING RING

Oh, the bell. Student would be arriving soon.

…

The lecture went mostly as planned. He even had time at then end to open up for questions. Most were kids explaining theirs or a friends power and asking how they’d be classified, but he did get asked about polymorphs.

“Why aren’t polymorphs on the board?” The kid asked.

“Well, I didn’t add it because polymorphs are both incredibly rare and relatively unresearched. A polymorph can have many, sometimes all abilities demonstrated by others, but the powers are often beyond their control because of the magnitude of their power.”

“How common are they?”

“Only 13 have been recorded.”

An amusing chorus of ‘ooh’s and ‘ah’s overtook the class before the bell rang, signalling the end of the class.

…

It had got Logan to thinking of how much he wanted to study a polymorph. It’d be a break in the understanding of powered abilities. He could think up 100 tests in less than a minute he’d love to conduct. It could change science…

…

That night, as he did every night, Logan put on his costume and headed out.

With powers, came heroes…

and villains.

His suit was light and breathable, good for movement as is neccessary from a hero. However its main purpose was to enhance Logan’s senses, thereby enhancing his psychic range and ability.

He had been hearing reports of a recurring offender striking a downtown bank.

As he took a breathe of night air he breathed…

and teleported.

Logan stumbled a bit upon arrival, teleporting never got any easier.

He was on the roof of a nearby parking garage, looking down at the bank.

He stood for a while… waiting.

Waiting…

BOOM!

Logan jumped and turned, there was a fire about 5 miles South.

Damnit, it was a trick! No one was at the bank!

Focus… breathe… and-

teleport!

Logan popped onto the scene, a fire was blazing, its roar deafening those nearby.

A giant dark figure rose above the burning building. It had tails covered in yellow scales grasping the edges of concrete, scales covering half of its face, fangs leaking venom, and glowing yellow eyes that pierced the very fabric of reality.

“How nice, I see a hero caught on to my little plan. You won’t catch me, though. I am Deceit, you will all soon fear me!” The man wailed. He rose his arms and the fire burned hotter.

He was huge, 60 feet high, with animalistic and human features clashing for dominance on a horribly mutated figure.

How-

No… NO!

Logan was stood in shock.

To have animal features like tails he would need transformation abilities, but then he just showed elemental abilities… meaning.

He was a polymorph.

A polymorph.

Logan stumbled back. No… No, a villain that was a polymorph?! Who could control his powers. There’s no way- how could they-

“EMERITUS!” A large blue panther shot out of the flames. “HELP ME SAVE THE PEOPLE!”

Logan shook himself out of his whirling thoughts. Focus on the people. “Alright, Animania.”

With a clench of his fist and focus of mind, Logan willed himself off the ground to see the street. He saw a couple surrounded by fire and used his telekinesis to will them above the fire and back down to the ground.

Logan soon saw Prince of Storms willing a heavy rainstorm over the fire.

In the three’s focus on the disaster, the new villain, Deceit, shrunk in size and slithered away.

Animania shifted between animal forms to grab people and run them through the flames fast enough to not get burnt. Prince of Storms used his water and ice abilities to quell the flames, while Logan helped stragglers and directed Prince of Storm’s moves.

They spent the next 2 hours quelling the flames and finding help for the survivors. No death, 54 casualties.

Logan, exhausted, burnt, and shocked, walked back to his apartment and passed out on his couch, too tired to even get to his room.

A polymorphic villain…

God help us all.

…

The next day was tiring, but Logan spent most of it obsessing over their new findings.

A polymorphic villain.

It was devastating. He was more powerful than any know hero.

He buried himself in a his study, reviewing diagrams and past findings, brainstorming ways to defeat such a villain.

Charts were scattered across the floor, journals were astray and opened to random pages, papers with questions and theories scrawled in messy ink lay flung across desks.

No polymorph in recorded history had that much control over their powers. He seems to have more mastery of singular powers than any other heroes!

Logan looked up at the clock. He had been there for hours, obsessively going through all data he had ever collected.

Time to go out for patrol.

…

Logan decided to go over the rooftops in a quieter area, giving him time to think. The moonlight gave the cement a soft silver glow as he walked. The distant sounds of cars and sirens gave a familiar sense of city calmness. As calm as a city can get.

Logan breathed purposefully as he went over what he could in his head.

“Shown abilities, transformation and elemental. Sub categories, size transformation, inter-species transformation on a partial scale and and mutative scale…” Logan muttered as he walked. He’d walk to the end of a rooftop and use his psychic abilities to allow him to walk between buildings as if there was an invisible bridge.

The night air was cold, but refreshing compared to his stuffy apartment, now a mess with his research strewn about.

Logan was so focused on his thoughts, he almost missed the car alarm on the street.

A man had broken the window and was attempting to steal the car.

Logan blinked and shook his head. It was a long way down, so he focused on teleportation.

Focus, breathe.

Logan popped in at street level and stumbled back, a bit shaken as his brain wasn’t as focused as usual.

Logan got his bearing and readied himself for a scuffle, only to see the man on the ground, bleeding.

“What?” Logan approached and looked around. How the-

Logan looked up to see a man crouched in an alley with a phone lighting up his face. From the brief glance, he was young and pale. Did he do that? Was he a hero, or maybe a thug who beat him up?

From the glance he got, he wasn’t wearing a hero’s costume, which heroes often wore so they were recognized as good guys. And he hasn’t a hero that Logan knew… and Logan knew every hero in Florida!

Logan glared and took off running. “Hey, you!”

The man stood and bolted. Logan growled and focused. He held out his hand in the direction of the thug to-

As Logan was about to use his telekinesis, something strange happened. The man stumbled and his back seemed to grow, flexing and shrinking at random before snapping back to normal. The man was stumbling, falling forward and just barely catching himself to propel himself a small bit forward before falling again.

Was he hurt?

“Sir? Sir, are you hurt?” Logan yelled.

The man yelled and stopped, flexing and grunting.

What the-

In an instant the man was propelled off the ground, 60 feet up, before he fell onto the roof and continued running.

Logan paused for a minute, utterly confused, before focusing and teleporting up to where the man had landed.

Logan stumbled onto the roof, dizzy from his teleportation. The man was on the edge of the roof, shivering.

Logan stopped and panted, the chase having exhausted him.

“Sir? Are you okay?” Logan took a step forward. The man wasn’t running anymore. He was crouched at the edge. Not moving at all.

The man whimpered and fell backward. He snapped his eyes open and scrambled until his back was against the wall.

Logan got a good look at him in the moonlight. He was indeed young, perhaps a teenager. He was wearing a black hoodie, had a purple fringe, and had a glowing purple and glowing green eye.

“P-Please-” The man gasped. “Don’t hurt me.”

Logan just had a look of confusion. “Just… tell me who you are, and what you were doing.” Logan relaxed his posture to show he wasn’t on the attack.

“I-I’m Virgil Nyctus. I-I hurt the guy cause he was stealing the car, but I was calling an ambulance for him, honest!” So that’s why he had his phone.

The man held up his hands in defense. He seemed teary-eyed and puffy in the face.

“Alright. I’m Emeritus. Logan Berry. I’m a hero and I’m not here to hurt you. I noticed you were struggling with something back there…” Logan tried to think of how to describe what he saw.

The man- Virgil, bit his lip and looked at the ground. He whimpered and began crying.

Logan was stunned, he felt useless. He wasn’t good with feelings, he was the ‘stop the danger’ hero, not ‘make them feel better’ hero.

“O-Okay- uh, can you tell me how old you are, and where you live so I can help you home?”

Virgil just cried harder. His whole body was wracked with sobs.

Feelings. Feelings. Who did Logan know that was good with feelings?

… Logan pulled out his phone. “Patton? I need your help. Come to my apartment as soon as possible.”

Logan hung up and approached the kid who tensed as he approached. “Alright, you seem, uh, not okay. I’m going to teleport us to my apartment where you’ll meet someone who’s better with… this. Don’t freak out, I’m going to teleport us now.”

Virgil gave a meek nod while crying.

Logan took a breath. Teleporting two people was never easy but…

Focus. Breathe.

The two popped into the lower floor on Logan’s apartment. As soon as logan overcame his wave of dizziness, he raced to the light switch.

Virgil was still crying, but less. He was curled in on himself, crying and whimpering.

Logan stood awkwardly. “Um- You can sit on the couch if you want. I also have blankets if you’re- uh- cold.”

Thankfully, a familiar blue jay flew onto his window sill and tapped on his window. Logan rushed to open the window, and the jay flew in before switching back to its human form.

Patton landed on the floor and took in the sight of the strange man crying on his floor. He didn’t even ask questions, he just rushed to his side.

“Oh my goodness, are you okay? Can I get you a drink?”

Virgil whimpered and turned his head away.

“Hey, kiddo, look at me. I’m here to help. I just wanna help. You don’t have to talk right now, but could you do me a favor and just take a seat on the couch, there? I’m going to get you some water okay?” Patton spoke calmly and clearly with empathy lacing every word.

Virgil nodded and sat on the couch.

Wow, he was good.

“Go get him some water, Logan.”

“Oh- yes!” Logan ran into the kitchen to get some water. He poured a few glasses and took them back into the living room on a tray he sat on the ottoman.

By the time he got back Virgil had stopped crying. Patton was lightly rubbing his leg.

“Alright. Just breathe in and out, can you do that? Just in… wait a moment, and out. That’s it.” Patton guided Virgil through a breathing exercise which seemed to calm him down. “Can you keep doing this while I talk to Logan? Just focus on breathing, that’s it.”

Virgil nodded and continued deep breathing. Patton stood and walked into the kitchen with Logan. “Alright, tell me what happened and how you found him.”

“Alright, his name is Virgil Nyctus. I was on patrol and some thug was about to steal a car. This kid said he beat up the criminal and was about to call an ambulance for him. I thought he was a thug since he wasn’t recognizable as a hero, and ran after him. He… seemed to struggle with something? Maybe a power? Before he just…” Logan tried to gesture what he saw. “Got launched into the air and landed on a roof. I found him on the roof, and he put his hands up, begged me not to hurt him, and told me his info. I asked where he lived and he started crying. That was about 15 minutes ago, this is the first time he hasn’t been crying since.”

Patton nodded through the whole thing. After a moment he sighed out an “okay.”

He walked back into the main room where Virgil was looking very sheepish and shy.

“Alright, so you’re Virgil?” Patton asked.

Virgil nodded.

Patton crouched down in front of him.

“How old are you?”

“16…”

Logan blinked. He was a kid! He chased down a frickin’ child!

“Could you tell me what you were doing before Logan found you?”

Virgil looked down and got a little teary. “I just… saw the man breaking into the car and… and I thought I could still-”

Patton looked confused. “Still what?”

Virgil looked into Patton’s eyes for the first time. It was a purposeful stare, like he was deciding if he should trust him.

“I-” Virgil started. “I’m… I’m a polymorph, and for the past few years I’ve been kind of a… secret hero. I’d use invisibility and speed to take down criminals.”

Logan had to keep his jaw from dropping. He’d heard and criminals being found beaten with an ambulance finding them, they assumed it was just some hero staying out of the spotlight.

Seems they were on the right track.

“My father had been training me. He’s a polymorph to. He taught me a lot, but then…” Virgil winced and tears fell down his face. “He used… his draining abilities on me. He drained my abilities. He took away everything and kicked me out.” Virgil started crying harder, his words were choked. “He used me for my powers, then just… abandoned me. I still have my powers, but I have no control over them. It’s like he… drained the control I had over my powers so he could use his own better.”

Patton was amazingly sturdy through everything, he nodded and kept a sympathetic smile.

Logan was pale.

The chances of two polymorphs are insanely low, but there are theories that it has a genetic disposition.

So most likely, the polymorph villain…

Was the same man who threw this child out after draining him.


	2. Chapter 2

After Virgil seemed to cry out every last bit of energy, Patton made him drink some water, gave him a blanket, and told him he was staying on Logan’s couch tonight.

Logan didn’t mind, he would’ve offered had Patton not have offered first.

“I’d like you to take a shower, okay? It’ll help you feel better and more relaxed.”

Virgil nodded with an almost inaudible ‘okay’

The boy was directed to Logan’s bathroom and given a change of clothes. As soon as the door shut Logan looked at Patton with fear in his eyes.

“He’s a polymorph… his dad was a polymorph… by basic statistics… it- it has to be him! The villain we battled!” Logan felt his own breathing quicken.

Patton put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“It’ll be okay, Lo. We’ll deal with the villain, but right now, there’s a kid in your apartment, a child who was abused and betrayed by his dad. He needs someone here, and he needs you to be here for him.”

“Why can’t he stay with you? You’re better with people!” Logan protested.

“If you’ll have me, I’ll be back later tonight. I’d like to stay with him too to help him through this. The place I live doesn’t have room for him. I’m going to go tell Roman about what we’ve found out.”

Without another word Patton shifted into his blue jay form and flew out the window.

…

Virgil came out of Logan’s bathroom looking sheepish in the borrowed clothes.

“Thank you… You didn’t have to do this.” He spoke so quietly Logan could barely hear him.

“It’s okay. You’ve been through a lot. You can sleep on the couch and then Patton and I will… figure out what to do next.”

The boy winced.

“If you need any blankets, there are some extras in the hall closet, and if you need anything feel free to wake me, my bedroom is just down the hall.”

Virgil nodded and sat on the couch. Logan paused before walking to his bedroom. He had to admit, he was a bit awkward with people, and he had no experience in any situation resembling this one.

Logan was so overwhelmed. He could feel his hands shaking.

Polymorphic villain…

Virgil’s story seemed to explain how he was so powerful, he drained another polymorph’s ability control…

“Draining… What notes do I have on that category?” Logan took a breath and teleported upstairs. He ran to his shelves. Books, journals, diagrams, charts, all flew off the shelf for him to look over.

Some time passed. His study was a wreck. He rubbed his temples and he scanned a page for the fifth time.

He didn’t even know what he was looking for anymore. Anything? Just something… something to focus on, something to look for.

“Logan?”

Logan jumped and the soft voice. Patton gently creaked open his study door and entered with an apologetic smile.

“Patton? How long have you been here?”

“A while actually, trying to talk to Virgil. He’s really quiet. Very apologetic about intruding, but I told him its fine.”

Logan blinked and yawned. “Why would he be intruding when we invited him in?”

Patton just smiled. “Nevermind. Whatcha doing?”

“Just…” Logan flipped through a few pages and waved his hand aimlessly. “Trying to… figure out…” He sighed. “Figure out what the Hell we’re going to do.”

Patton placed his hand on Logan’s thigh. “It’ll be okay. Calm down, get some sleep.” He closed Logan’s journal and stood, motioning for him to do the same.

Logan obliged, his eyelids heavier than cement. He quietly followed Patton down the stairs.

Virgil was laid on the couch, asleep.

Logan paused at the site. He looked so young and so defenseless. His gentle dull purple hair cascaded against his freckled face illuminated by the soft glow of the mood through the window.

Logan felt an emotion he couldn’t identify. The closest he could assume it was was protectiveness.

Patton squeezed his shoulder to get his attention and led him back to his bedroom.

Logan nodded and mouthed ‘thank you’.

Patton nodded before shifting to the form of a small dog. Logan watched with soft amusement as the dog figure padded to a few pillows on the floor, spun around, then laid and closed its eyes.

Logan sighed and entered his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

He continued his nightly routine the best he could. He brushed his teeth, changed into sleepwear, took his medication, and got into bed.

Where normally this is where he’d fall asleep, he laid in bed staring at his ceiling for hours.

What did the future hold?


	3. Chapter 3

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

Logan’s alarm went off as it always does, though he had very little sleep to draw from when he begrudgingly rolled out of bed.

He stretched as his mind reminded him what had happened.

Catastrophic villain, abused polymorph child in his house, no hope for the future.

Logan grumbled and exited his room for morning coffee.

Virgil was still asleep on the couch, seeming small and vulnerable. Logan’s eyes lingered on the sleeping boy for a moment…

Tap tap.

Logan flicked his eyes to the window to see a familiar blue jay. With a sigh he walked to the window and opened it.

With a flutter and spin the blue jay’s form was replaced by that of the hero animania, or to Logan, his friend Patton.

“Hey, Lo. Roman will be here soon.”

“Great.” Logan made his way to the coffee machine, still too tired to really care that much.

Patton went to wake Virgil as he did so. The boy startled awake, looking terrified, before calming at the sight of Patton’s warm smile.

“Hey, kiddo. I have a friend who’s coming over who’s more your age. He’s an important friend of ours and I think he might be able to help.” Patton explained, noticing Virgil’s stiffening at the mention of his age.

Before he could inquire, a knock came from the door.

“I’ll get it!” Patton called and sprinted to the door, Logan not even having made a move to open it.

Patton swung the door open, revealing Roman standing proudly.

Logan watched as Virgil flinched and ducked behind the couch.

“Hi, Roman!”

“Greetings, Padre. Where’s this man you met last night?” 

“He’s right over-” Patton gestured to the couch, trailing off when he didn’t see Virgil.

Virgil sighed and rose up, looking nervous.

Roman blinked and his smile faltered.

“Hey, you’re that weird emo kid in junior year, right?” 

Virgil let out a small squeak and ducked his head.

“Roman, that wasn’t very nice!” Patton scolded.

“What? It’s true! He’s that loner kid that, like, never talks. Just tell me what he’s doing here.” 

Logan watched as Virgil sat on the floor behind the couch, facing away from them.

“I told you we found a man-” Patton began to explain.

Virgil gripped his jeans and his breathing quickened. Logan squinted. What…

“Yeah, but you didn’t tell me it was a kid from my high school!”

Virgil’s eyes… one purple and one green, began to glow.

“Guys…?” Logan started, the two ignoring him.

Virgil began panting, gasping for air and his eyes glowed brighter.

“Guys.”

“Wait, so does that mean that crazy monster in this guy’s dad?!”

Before the two could continue their conversation, Virgil let out a yelp and the room went white for a moment.

The apartment roared and in a flash, a wave of force pushed everyone and everything back.

Logan stumbled and slammed on his back to the cabinets. When the white light went away, he blinked and peered into the room.

Virgil was crying in the center. All furniture had been thrown across the apartment in all directions away from Virgil, leaving a bare circle of nothingness around him.

Roman and Patton were on their feet, but definitely shocked. Patton’s glasses had flown off his face.

Logan’s eyes were wide. That was powerful… and from the looks of things, involuntary.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Virgil curled in on himself, his eyes glowing bright. His skin was faltering with waves of invisibility, leaving only part of him visible at any given moment.

Logan was stunned. Though the wave of force had dissipated, he couldn’t move. 

Patton was the first to snap out of the shock. He quickly rushed to Virgil’s side and squeezed his hand. Logan couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he supposed it was emotional comfort or something of the sort.

Roman shakily walked to Logan. He waited for a moment before speaking.

“He’s… powerful.”

Logan nodded.

“You know what this means right?”

Logan said nothing.

“If Virgil can regain control of his powers… he may be the key to stopping Deceit.”

Logan thought for a moment.

He waited until Virgil seemed calm again. It took a while, but thanks to Patton, it did happen.

He approached Virgil and crouched beside him.

“Virgil… You don’t have anywhere to go do you?”

Virgil looked at him and shook his head, his eyes still puffy from the tears. Patton looked at him, a nonverbal command to watch his words.

“I… have a proposal for you.” Logan began. “You are a powerful polymorph… I’d like to study you and your abilities for many reason, but the main reason is, I believe that by working together, we may be able to defeat Deceit. While this is happening, you can stay here. I’ll clear out a room for you, I’ll provide cooked meals, and you can consider this your home. Does this sound appealing?”

Virgil’s eyes widened. He thought for a moment before murmuring “Do I get to see Animania?”

Patton held back a gasp and smiled, nodding to Logan.

Logan smiled. “If you’d like. I’m sure he’d be more than happy.”

Virgil took a breath. “Okay.”


End file.
